You Light Up My Life
by Mistress Reigns
Summary: He's heading for his bus in the parking lot when he hears the rather loud, demanding meow from somewhere nearby. Pausing, he lifts his head and realizes that balanced on top of a large case of… Something to do with the show is a cat. A big cat, at that, with sleek black fur and golden eyes surveying him in the darkness. He grins despite himself and offers his hand to be sniffed.


Cody generally feels like shit prior to the discovery. It's more of a normal feeling when it comes to him anymore. His time in the company seems to be taking him nowhere and he isn't looking forward to feuding with his big brother in the coming weeks. After all, he did enough of that growing up and he just wants to break away from Dustin and be his own wrestler again. He was tired of being toted around with Randy and Ted, and now he's doing this shit. It's stupid.

He's heading for his bus in the parking lot when he hears the rather loud, demanding meow from somewhere nearby. Pausing, he lifts his head and realizes that balanced on top of a large case of… Something to do with the show is a cat. A big cat, at that, with sleek black fur and golden eyes surveying him in the darkness. He grins despite himself and offers his hand to be sniffed.

"Hey, little guy. What are you doing out here?" he coos just because he feels like it.

The cat meows again and sniffs his hand, then rubs against it for pets. At least it's a friendly cat and it looks clean enough. Probably a recent stray since he sees no sign of a collar. Might have an owner looking for it but if the cat's gotten this far, it's likely not getting found.

"Come on." He stands on his toes and lifts the cat off of the box, settling it in his arms and heading for his bus, smoothing a hand down its back to keep it calm. "I'll call you Damien."

It's what he would've named a cat if he'd ever gotten one as a kid, after all.

The bus is already mostly full when he gets there and everyone notices the cat immediately; it's hard to miss it considering how large and furry it is. Dustin raises his eyebrows at him but Cody just ignores him, tossing his bag into his bunk before sitting down on one of the couches and letting Damien curl up properly on his lap. The awkward silence that follows is palpable, but Cody ignores everyone and starts smoothing his fingers through Damien's fur, listening to him mewl and purr as he rolls over in Cody's lap, covering his shorts in long black hairs.

"Nice pussy, bro," Dolph says as he flops down in the empty spot next to Cody, the smirk edging his lips absolutely maddening. But it's hard to hate Dolph. "Can I pet him or is he, like, rabid?"

"I wouldn't bring a rabid cat on the bus, Dolph. Jesus. If he says you can pet him, you can." Cody demonstrates how to hold out a hand to be sniffed and Dolph does just that. Damien noses his fingers before rubbing up under his hand, which is clear enough proof he's a social cat. Good.

Aksana takes a seat on the couch arm and offers her hand as well before combing her fingers through Damien's fur. "He's gorgeous, Cody. Just make sure he doesn't bolt off of the bus."

"I don't think he's going to. Seems to like it right where he is," Cody muses, smirking when Damien just flops down, purring deeply as he closes his eyes. If asked to define what a happy, satisfied cat looks like… "He was just sitting out there when I found him. Figure his owner should've been a little more responsible, so I brought him aboard. His name's Damien."

His brother bugs him to check around and make sure there are no missing cat posters up; Cody does, and there are none. That disturbs him a little and he wonders for a few days if maybe someone ditched Damien on the side of the road and the influx of people at the arena led him there. Then he stops thinking about it and just focuses on the fact he has a cat to take care of instead of just himself. On the bright side, Damien stays true to what nature he has shown and warms up quickly to everyone who comes near him. He doesn't cause trouble when Cody brings him into the arena and simply sits with someone while Cody goes out to wrestle and comes back in to shower. As soon as Cody's dressed, Damien's practically jumping into his arms for pets.

He's more of a mood booster than anything else, Cody muses. As soon as he comes backstage, whether he just won or lost, played up his inevitable split with his brother or not, all he has to do is sit down with Damien for a few minutes to unwind and relax. A few soothing pets does a lot for both of them, and it helps that Damien is just so damn affectionate. He's always up for pets.

"It's too bad the WWE doesn't have, like, a championship for taking care of cats," Curtis muses one night, giving Damien a rough rubdown while Cody finishes getting his stuff together.

Chuckling, he shuts the locker and drops his padlock into the side pocket of his duffel bag before drifting over to where Damien has stretched across one of the wooden benches. Seriously, he's a massive cat and Cody isn't entirely sure that cats are supposed to come this big. But the vet in the last city—who agreed to see Damien on short notice—said he was in fine health for his breed.

"It is too bad," Cody agrees, smirking slightly when Damien immediately bounds up and into his arms, meowing and nuzzling under his jaw. "I would so totally kick all of your asses at it."

Curtis scoffs but gives Damien a last pet before shouldering his bag and heading for the door, shooting Cody a grin over his shoulder. "Nah, man, I think Reigns has got you beat there. But your cat could probably kick both of his cats' asses so maybe Damien could win a belt for you."

Cody rolls his eyes and carries Damien out to the bus, finding that spot under his chin he loves having scratched as he boards and flops down in his bunk. He's exhausted because his match was a killer tonight—facing Randy Orton and Batista is just so _totally_ fair, right?—and he just wants to get to sleep as soon as possible. His bag he shoves into its compartment before he curls up on the mattress serving as his bed, letting Damien go so he can curl up in the proper position. Usually, he ends up sprawled across his side of the mattress with his head on the pillows like a little human. But apparently, Damien wants to change it up tonight because he doesn't lie down.

Instead, he waits for Cody to lie down on his back as per usual before climbing on top of him. Cody has to hold in the grunts because Damien is quite heavy, and then he grins because Damien curls up on his chest and starts nosing at Cody's face. If cats could give kisses, this would probably be how they do it and it's fucking adorable. Cody laughs, giving Damien a gentle pet.

"Since when did you get all up-close and personal?" he asks quietly, cocking his head.

And he swears Damien understands because he mewls. It's not English, but he _did_ answer.

Cody laughs and shakes his head before sobering a bit. "You know… Thanks for showing up."

It's probably stupid to be talking to a cat in the first place because Damien probably can't understand him—except Cody thinks that is a lot of bullshit. Cats didn't get to be one of the most intelligent animals and learn to largely outsmart their owners without communication.

And the thing is, talking to Damien has been a normal occurrence since he found him. He started talking to him that night, and amazingly, that helped with a lot of his stress, too. Damien isn't a person who just complicates things by not understanding what he's going through. Instead, he's smart enough to see that Cody is stressed and smart enough to just cuddle in to comfort him.

"Just… You know… You showed up at a pretty damn good time. Like, you had perfect timing and I'll bet you knew that. You're all proud of that shit, aren't you?" Cody slides his fingers under Damien's chin and starts scratching gently, watching those golden eyes slowly close and listening to the purring begin. Yeah, they've both gotten to know each other pretty well over the years. "Just, man, I was really upset and angry about everything. And you just randomly showed up and calmed me down and even if my career doesn't go anywhere any time soon, I'm not as mad about that now. And you have no right to do that, you know that? That's just insane."

"What's insane is you talking to your cat," a voice muses, and Cody jumps when he realizes his brother is standing by his bunk, looking in on him. Listening in on him. And that is just _low_ but they're brothers and he honestly should have seen this coming at some point.

Dustin sits down uninvited. "Was that true? About you being angry and upset and your career?"

"Well, yeah." Cody smoothes a hand down Damien's back. "I mean… Who wouldn't be?"

"I didn't know you felt that way about it." Which really means _Why didn't you tell me this?_

Cody blows a breath before looking over at his brother. "It's not something I can change and after thinking it over, I don't want to change it. Like I said, I'm doing okay now. I'm good."

"Just as long as you're good." Dustin reaches over, strokes Damien's head. "He's a good cat."

"Yeah. Fucking perfect cat," Cody agrees, smiling when Damien meows at him, licks his nose.

His brother chuckles and pushes himself up. "Just remember you've got people you can talk to about stuff. But it's good to know you found someone who could help you out after all."

They say their goodnights and Cody goes back to talking to Damien without missing a beat, going over his last match and what he thought he could have done better. Then he opens a can of cat food and lets Damien eat it out of the can right on the bed, not caring if it gets spilled.

He falls asleep with Damien a heavy weight on his chest, but it's not so bad and it's something he might be able to get used to with some exposure. Plus, after all Damien's done for him since showing up… If all he wants in return is the right to use Cody as a pillow, then he can have it because Cody honestly owes him more anyway. A hell of a lot more.

And being woken up by a sandpaper tongue licking his face and insistent, hungry meows is a lot more pleasant than Aksana repeatedly punching him in the arm and screaming at him to get up.

* * *

_**A/N: Because if Cody was going to have a cat, it would be Damien hands down. Also just gonna casually pretend Asksana never got released because I liked her and that match on Friday night was a slap in the face.**_


End file.
